The present invention pertains generally to packing cigarettes and other rod-shaped smoking articles, and pertains more especially to packing cigarettes and other smoking articles of oval cross-section. The invention will be described throughout with reference to oval cigarettes only, but it is to be understood that the scope of the invention includes methods and apparatus of the type claimed for packing any rod-shaped smoking articles.
Conventional cigarette packs are designed to receive a specified number of cigarettes (typically twenty) of circular cross-section, and can receive that number of cigarettes only in certain configurations. To pack such cigarettes, it is only necessary to position the correct number of cigarettes in the correct position relative to each other and to move them longitudinally (axially) into the pack.
Oval cigarettes, however, present an additional problem. The volume that will be occupied by a given number of such cigarettes depends not only upon their relative position but also upon the angular position of each cigarette about its longitudinal axis (hereinafter, its "angular orientation"). If all the oval cigarettes that are to be put in one row have the same angular orientation, the row will occupy far less volume than otherwise.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a method and apparatus capable of orienting oval cigarettes in a particular manner and placing them in a pack or box of a chosen size and shape. It is the object of the invention to provide such a method and such an apparatus.